Our beloved Heidelberg!- this is an expression one seldom hears about a confession or a creed of the church. After all, a confession is composed of doctrines which are supposed by many to be dry and unemotional theological statements. Yet, love for the Heidelberg Catechism has characterized the history of the Reformed Church in the United States and continues. It is not a love for a book or a document as such, but a love for the faith it expresses so well.
Along with us, Christians of many languages from all over the world have uttered these words as they have known the "comfort" so beautifully and soundly expressed by this document first published in 1563. What is it that makes the Heidelberg Catechism so unique?
The continuing history of the Reformed Church in the United States is due in large part to the use of the "Heidelberger." The defining word here is "use." What benefit is a creed for us if it is not used? What good is a creed carefully preserved on our "beloved historical document" shelf, if it is not also in our hearts and heads? How can a creed benefit the church if it is not taught to believers and to their children? It is alleged that indoctrination of our covenant children is somehow suspect or simply wrong. Critics say it leads to "dead orthodoxy." We would counter by saying that not knowing what to believe leads to "unorthodoxy." The anti-creedal trend in the twentieth century has been to render mere lip service to the historical, confessional statements of the church, but not to make them living documents in the life of the church. If you want to see a dying church, look at one which no longer teaches or adheres to its own creeds. If you want to see a dead church, look at one which can no longer define what it claims to believe. If its belief is unknown, then what reason is there for its existence? The exodus from the historic Reformed faith in recent years has not been the fault of the creeds, but a failure to make them the center of instruction and discipline.
In some quarters, attempts are made to rewrite theology so frequently that a book such as the Heidelberg Catechism seems like little more than a relic of the past. The results are clearly seen today and they are disastrous. The pathetic trend of today is doctrinal avoidance where theological awareness is exchanged for feelings. Doctrinal ignorance is often lauded. Feelings, opinions, and experiences have become the basis for truth. People fear that doctrines (usually considered to be too old-fashioned and divisive) will drive people away from the church. In reality, the opposite is true-people leave when they no longer know or can state what they believe. When people are no longer able to distinguish between truth and error, they easily fall prey to liberalism or neo-evangelicalism.
Doctrines are simply teachings, and everyone follows some teaching. Everyone believes something-whether true or false. Today's anti-creedal environment says, "No book but the Bible; no creed but Christ." As clever as this might sound, this is the creed of many who prefer to disguise their actual beliefs either because of ignorance or because their doctrines are too bizarre to be presented up front.
The Heritage
Countless people through the years have carried on the Heidelberg tradition. That is well, but will we and our children continue to carry on the Heidelberg's truths? Will we continue to commit it to our heads and our hearts? Will we faithfully teach our covenant children to walk in the doctrines it so clearly expounds? Would we be willing, as many before us, to put our life on the line to cling to the Christian faith as set forth in the Heidelberg? The use of the Heidelberg is very much a part of our past, but will we take that heritage with us into the future?
To recount the rich heritage of our forefathers is an exercise in futility and no more than "name-dropping" unless we still walk in those shoes and are committed to instill these truths in the hearts and minds of the generations to come. Just to preserve and honor a heritage as a thing of the past is to make an idolatrous icon of it. To persevere in the faith expressed in our Heidelberg heritage will be a blessing to us and to our covenant children. The Heidelberg is not just a book to memorize, but to use so that the Scriptures might be opened to us in a most beautiful and comforting way.
The Heidelberg heritage is not something we should speak of merely in the past tense. We are the ones who, with others of like precious faith, must carry this heritage into the future. We appear to pale in comparison to some of the men instrumental in producing the Heidelberg, yet we should not view ourselves as under them. As Dr. Cornelius Van Til used to teach, each generation must stand on the shoulders of those preceding to further the cause of Christ and His Kingdom.
As a Reformed Church, the Heidelberg Catechism is a vital part of our heritage. It can only be our fervent and continued prayer that it will always be "our beloved Heidelberg"-an expression of our only comfort-for generations to come.
Praise God for our Heidelberg heritage!
